Chernobyl Wildlife Thriving as Scientists Find Exclusion Zone Full of Animals
"The word "Chernobyl" likely conjures up eerie images of buildings long-abandoned by residents who fled the nuclear fallout.
But the area in Ukraine is
far from deserted, as evidenced by a study showing how
a wide variety of animals, from eagles to otters, live there.
After the Chernobyl power plant exploded in 1986, causing what is generally regarded as the worst nuclear disaster in history, humans abandoned an area spanning 1,000 square miles north of Kiev, known as the exclusion zone.
Since then, scientists have been
fascinated by the animals that might inhabit this desolate pocket of Ukraine bordering Belarus.
..."We've seen evidence of a diversity of wildlife in the CEZ through our previous research, but this is the first time that we've seen
white-tailed eagles, American mink and river otter on our cameras," commented James Beasley, co-author of the new study and associate professor at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources..."
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